COURT RULES AND WORKLOAD: A CASE STUDY OF RULES GOVERNING AMICUS CURIAE PARTICIPATIONPublished in 1983. Justice System Journal 8 (1): 35-45. (Revised version of a paper delivered at the 1986 meeting of the Southern Political Science Association.)

Karen O'Connor
Lee Epstein

Given recent comments from several Justices of the current U.S. Supreme Court concerning their workload , this note examines whether the Court has invoked its own rules to limit the number of amicus curiae briefs with which it deals each term. Our findings indicate that the Justices rarely reject petitions to file amicus curiae briefs pursuant to Rule 27 (a). One possible explanation for this result, which is explored here, is that members of the Court rely heavily on amicus curiae briefs to formulate their opinions.

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